In order to acquire Albritton stations in Harrisburg, Birmingham and Charleston, Sinclair will sell the stations it already owns in those markets, in order to get FCC approval. Sinclair will continue to provide sales and other non-programming support services to those stations.

In a company news release, Sinclair President and CEO said the following.

"We are thrilled to add the Allbritton properties to our growing portfolio and national footprint. To buy a full-blown news operation in our nation s capital and an infrastructure that allows us to be connected to our branches of government and be at the pulse of national issues is a once-in-a lifetime event. We are especially excited to acquire the NewsChannel 8 local news channel, not only for the content it can provide our existing news stations, but moreover because their regional cable presence provides the perfect platform should we decide to expand it into other markets, especially given the amount of local news we produce across our entire portfolio."